The fast-moving storm that swept through the Baltimore area produced no fewer than five lightning strikes in Anne Arundel County during a 30-minute period, damaging two properties. According to Lt. Frank Fennell, a spokesman for the Anne Arundel County Fire Department, the most extensive damage was at an empty waterfront property in the 100 block of Edgewater Road in Edgewater. The owners were away, but neighbors reported the fire that investigators determined was caused when lightning hit a tree and then a nearby propane tank.

A note about Jeff Yeatman: I sought him out; he did not contact me. Until I asked, he'd never given an interview about the random act of madness that occurred 15 years ago near his office in downtown Baltimore. "I actively avoided it at the time," he says, "because I resented the idea that I had to share something very fresh and awful just because other people found it interesting. " I came across his name while searching Google for articles about walking to work. This headline, from The Baltimore Sun of Feb. 3, 1999, popped up: "Lawyer wounded walking to work.

Wild storms moved throughHarford County early Thursday evening, taking down trees, knocking out power to a few homes and businesses and bringing lightning that hit at least three houses. High winds and driving rain swept through the county between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Hail was also reported in a number of places in the greater Bel Air area. None of the house fires reported caused "significant" damage, according to Dave Williams, spokesman for theHarford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association.

By Scott Dance and Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun | September 12, 2013

Lightning struck Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport's air traffic control tower, injuring one person and shutting down the airport for nearly three hours Thursday afternoon, delaying or stranding thousands of travelers. A bolt struck the tower about 2:30 p.m., shocking a controller as he was flipping a switch to turn on a generator that powers backup runway lights, said John Dunkerly, president of BWI's chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Storms: Summer reliably brings three things in much of the United States: heat, humidity and thunderstorms. The storms' raw materials are moisture, lift and atmospheric instability. Their lightning bolts superheat the air, and the air's rapid expansion and contraction form the sound waves we hear as thunder.

A New Windsor woman and a male friend were injured when they were struck by lightning Tuesday outside the woman's home, fire officials said.Amy Whitfield, 18, of the 1100 block of Tibbetts Lane was standing with her friend under a tree next to a barbecue grill when lightning struck, fire officials said.Whitfield and the man, who was not identified, were taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, fire officials said.Their medical conditions were unavailable.The lightning did not strike the house, as reported by a Baltimore television station, said Ronnie Blacksten, chief of the New Windsor Fire Company.

Thunderstorms that roared to the edge of Baltimore dropped more than 5 inches of rain in some areas yesterday, and evening lightning strikes knocked out radar and blasted holes in a runway at the Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Flights were held up for hours and additional delays are expected this morning. Howard County took a major hit and Anne Arundel County was belted even harder, with storms snarling traffic and knocking out power to more than 12,000 homes there. Across Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s Central Maryland system, more than 20,000 customers were blacked out for varying lengths of time - and repair work was expected to continue into this morning, a spokesman said.

Say "lightning" to Howard Redman and watch him cringe."They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place. Don't believe it," said Mr. Redman, who is chief of Carroll's Bureau of Emergency Operations Services.Lightning has hit the county's Emergency Operations Center at 1345 Washington Road five times in the past 10 years, including twice in the past month.Why is Mother Nature torturing "Buddy" Redman and his staff?He's trying to find out. He hired Equipment Protection Services Inc. of Glen Rock, Pa., to study the problem.

LOS ANGELES - Two weeks after the most destructive wildfires in state history blackened the skies over Southern California, a freak storm deluged Los Angeles on Wednesday night and left piles of hail more than a foot deep in some parts of the city. In Watts, a neighborhood seldom visited by providence, residents saw the lightning lacing the sky, the water cascading down the streets and the hail pounding on their rooftops as some sort of sign. "I haven't seen anything like this in all my years," said Tyrone Wright, 52, cleaning up the mud around his tiny home on Alvaro Street.

Lightning strikes left a Frederick man dead and a Howard County family without a home yesterday, as violent thunderstorms tore through the area during much of the sweltering afternoon. Michael Paul Palmer, 55, was killed by a bolt of lightning while standing on his deck in the 1800 block of Millstream Drive, Frederick police said. Palmer's 18-year-old son called for an ambulance about 2 p.m., but Palmer could not be revived and was later pronounced dead at Frederick Memorial Hospital. About an hour later in western Howard County, a Clarksville family watched their home burn after lightning apparently struck the chimney, and neighbors could not get through to 911 for several crucial minutes.

Two men were taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries after a possible lightning strike Wednesday night, and remained there as of Thursday morning, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. Medics were called to a community beach in the 100 block of River Drive in the Annapolis Neck area about 8:45 p.m. and took the two men, aged 19 and 23, to Anne Arundel Medical Center, said fire officials. The person who called 911 said the men were injured in a lightning strike, but the department has not yet confirmed whether that was how they suffered their injuries, said Lt. Jack Beall, a Fire Department spokesman.

A 19-year-old woman was injured in a lightning strike at the Plumpton Park Zoo in Rising Sun as severe weather moved through the area Thursday morning, according to Cecil County Emergency Services Director Richard Brooks. Emergency personnel were called to the zoo in the 1400 block of Telegraph Road about 9:08 a.m. and found a group of bystanders caring for the woman, Brooks said. The bystanders told the medics that the woman had been standing near a large tree when the lightning struck.

Two homes in the Potomac Place neighborhood of Fort Meade were destroyed and two more damaged in a fire Sunday, base officials said. No one was injured in the fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike to the roof of one home at about 6:30 p.m., officials said. The homes were located at 5th Corps Avenue and Taylor Lane. Several families were evacuated while firefighters from Anne Arundel County and Fort Meade brought the blaze under control, officials said. The displaced families were sheltered in a neighborhood center until they could be relocated into temporarily housing, officials said.

Visa's new Olympic-themed ad starring Michael Phelps just might give America a case of the shivers. Fair warning. First of all, it's got the voice of Morgan Freeman who can induce goosebumps by reading the telephone book. But the film-work is also quite stunning, illustrating the concept of one hundredth of a second -- the amount of time that allowed Phelps to bring eight medals home from the 2008 Olympics. "One hundredth of a second is faster than the blink of an eye," Freeman says.

My heart sank the morning I toured the scorched interior of Hampden's Mount Vernon United Methodist Church. On that Monday three years ago, what had been a postcard-perfect Victorian stone chapel was a heap of smashed stained glass, wrecked pews and charred timbers. I returned this week and discovered a resplendent Mount Vernon. No longer a church, it is now the home of the computer business Chesapeake Systems. It seemed highly improbable that its transformation from an old-fashioned Methodist textile mill workers' chapel could be so successful.

Lightning struck a North Laurel restaurant, causing it to catch fire and customers to flee Sunday afternoon, according to Howard County fire officials. Firefighters from Howard, Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties were called at 2 p.m. to the Wild Buffalo Grill Restaurant at 10024 Washington Boulevard for a two-alarm fire that spread to the second floor and attic, according to a statement from the Howard County fire department. The restaurant was open at the time but no injuries were reported.

Beth Surbeck and son Ben, 12, were watching a thunderstorm in Lutherville when "a bright orange flash arose from ... our macadam road, and there was an audible pop," but no lightning or thunder. "What might have caused this?" Sounds like the discharge of a "positive streamer," a channel of ionized air that leaps from the ground to meet "stepped leaders" descending from the clouds. Where they connect, lightning strikes. Where they don't, the streamer discharges with a feeble "pop."

Wild storms moved throughHarford County early Thursday evening, taking down trees, knocking out power to a few homes and businesses and bringing lightning that hit at least three houses. High winds and driving rain swept through the county between 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Hail was also reported in a number of places in the greater Bel Air area. None of the house fires reported caused "significant" damage, according to Dave Williams, spokesman for theHarford County Volunteer Fire and EMS Association.

An article in the Aug. 12, 1911 edition of The Argus reported on damage from a severe storm. Lightning struck the home of Mr. Emil Fisher, Smithwood avenue, last Friday night, causing damage of several hundred dollars. The bolt struck the roof near the chimney and entered the house, ripping the plaster off several rooms. No one was injured. The home of Mr. Fisher was struck by lightning about six weeks ago in the same place. *****' Rabbits and partridges are said to be more plentiful than for a number of years.